Christen Ager-Hanssen

He is the son of Norwegian industrialist and nuclear physicist Henrik Ager-Hanssen (1930–2004) and politician Bjørg Ager-Hanssen.

He grew up in Halden, Oslo, and Stavanger before he moved to Sweden where he worked for IBM and Kinnevik in Stockholm.

Christen Eugen Ager-Hanssen (born July 29, 1962) is a Norwegian internet entrepreneur & venture capitalist.

In the early 1980s, Ager-Hanssen was employed by different blue chip computer technology companies such as Burroughs, Digital Equipment Corporation and IBM.

Since the late 1990s, he has been based in London and is a highly controversial private equity professional.

Ager-Hanssen was involved in several high-profile M&A deals and has become known for public hostile takeovers.

In a Canadian Business cover story, he was described as both Gordon Gekko and a modern-day Viking.

His work to commercialize the Internet in the 1990s included early experiments with search engines, internet infrastructure such as satellite internet access, legal music distribution, banking and financial services, e-mail advertising, banner ads, and pay-per-click advertising.

He invests in various companies through his investment vehicle, Custos.

Christen Ager-Hanssen was born in Halden, Norway.

In the early 1990s, Ager-Hanssen became a recognized speaker in the field of business process reengineering and legacy information systems.

Ager-Hanssen is a former Kinnevik AB group executive and recognized as an internet commercialization pioneer.

Ager-Hanssen was also a senior executive in the Kinnevik group with regards to Tele2 AB and its international expansion.

He founded several internet startups together with Investment AB Kinnevik, including Netsys Technology Group, Webware and Polarsearch, one of the first search engines in Scandinavia.

He is one of many individuals within the Kinnevik Group that later became entrepreneurs.

Ager-Hanssen has been an active investor on the Swedish stock exchange who invested in many blue chip companies.

In early 1998, Ager-Hanssen made a bid for NetSys Technology Group, including Webware and Polarsearch, together with the National Pension Fund of Sweden.

The bid was successful and ended up with Ager-Hanssen controlling 60% of the company through a newly established joint venture with the National Pension Fund of Sweden.

Kinnevik and other shareholders subsequently made a successful exit.

In June 1998, Ager-Hanssen made a successful hostile cash bid on the publicly-traded company Verimation AB for SEK 120 million.

Ager-Hanssen thereafter delisted the company and integrated the business into the joint venture with the Pension Fund.

In 1999 he claims to have become one of Norway's richest citizens, although investigative journalists have disputed this.

Ager-Hanssen has also been recognized for his expertise in the Internet.

In 1999, Dagens Industri described him as a stock trader who made huge profits from being a brilliant stock trader rather than making a profit from his investment portfolio.

His investment portfolio was at the time valued at SEK 1.7 billion.

In November 2022, Ager-Hanssen was appointed as the CEO of nChain group.

On September 29, 2023, Ager-Hanssen claimed to have resigned due to disagreements with the company's board.

The same day, nChain released a statement acknowledging that it had “parted company” with Ager-Hanssen and appointed Stefan Matthews as its new CEO.

On September 30, 2023, nChain issued a further statement that Ager-Hanssen had “conducted himself in a serious and inappropriate manner which prompted the decision to dismiss Mr. Ager-Hanssen with immediate effect.”

In 2011, he was reported for witness tampering and blackmail after secretly recording Ugland's lawyer Tom Knudsen.

Knudsen told the court that Ager-Hanssen had threatened him vis text message that he would release the recordings if Knudson did not acquiesce to his demands.

He is also said to have approached Ugland's financial director Jan Erik Tønnessen outside his home at midnight, threatening him also.

Tønnessen told journalists "He scared me and my family. I was told that I had to cooperate with them. Otherwise there would be things on NRK. Brennpunkt...I am now seriously considering going to the police about this. "

In 2014, Ager-Hanssen told Dagens Nyheter he had "rigged a hidden recording device" at his home during a meeting with HQ Bank chairman Christer Sandberg.

In 2016, Ager-Hanssen covertly recorded the filmmaker Fredrik von Krusenstjerna who was reportedly making a documentary about HQ Bank.

The recording was secretly uploaded to YouTube and the documentary was scrapped.

In 2022, Ager-Hanssen covertly recorded at his office in London, after paying for tickets for Roche and his wife to fly over.

The videos surfaced months later on kompromat website Cryptoleaks.

Roche claims he was drugged during the encounter and did not have a recollection of everything discussed.

Ager-Hanssen initially denied being behind the sting,and made threats towards Kyle Roche over the claim, but confessed in a 2023 Norwegian interview.